Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Lotfi Ariffin Does Not Fight For IS!

It’s no surprise that there are some people from Southeast Asia currently fighting in Syria and Iraq on behalf of the Islamic State (IS). IS has recruited people from all over the world, so this cannot come as any surprise.

So
when Yahoo news announced how the death of a Malaysian Islamist in Syria fighting
on behalf of IS has sparked an outpouring of eulogies on social media, many
people were rightfully concerned. However there’s just one problem.

Lotfi Ariffin, the Malaysian in question, does not fight for
IS!

He died fighting the Syrian government of Bashar Al-Assad on behalf of an
Islamic group call Ajnad al-Sham, a rebel group that operates near the Syrian capital
of Damascus which is not affiliated to IS or the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front. Having
said that, according to his regular posts on social media, Mr. Lotfi Ariffin was a proud
Islamist who believed he was answering a call for jihad in Syria.

That is short is the headache facing Western and Arabic
states looking to take on IS in Syria and Iraq. Do they just attack IS or
should they also attack other Islamic militant groups like Nusra Front and
Ajnad al-Sham? How do they differentiate between the groups and if they attack
all of them, would that make/force the groups to band together?

For people who are wondering why it is taking so long for
the U.S and the Western countries to attack IS, this is just one of the big
problems they are facing with no clear answer.